Microfluidics has been shown to provide a versatile and powerful tool for a large number of applications in many areas of science and technology [Utada A. S. et al., Science, 2005, 38(5721): 534-541]. Most of these applications have remained laboratory-based due to key limitations of this technology associated with the difficulties encountered in the large-scale production of the products it generates. In particular, it is well known that the microchannels in microfluidic devices are easily clogged by external agents such as dust, residues and other contaminants, for example, those emerging from chemical reactions that may be taking place within the device being fabricated.
These two particular aspects limit the further development of microfluidics, with a particular impact on the potential development of microfluidic technology for large scale applications of the products generated using microfluidics. These limitations are encountered in many applications and more precisely in the production of polymersomes by microfluidics, such as in the large scale generation of polymersomes with a fast formation time.
In particular, as standard glass microfluidic devices easily clog up, their large scale production is not efficient, because the throughput of one channel glass microfluidics is very low. Other devices made of different materials, such as PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidics devices have been proposed. For example, Arriaga, L. R. et al. (Lab Chip, 2015, 15, 3335-3340) reported a scalable PDMS-based microfluidic device, built using soft lithography, to enable the continuous production of double emulsions. Vian et al. (Lab Chip, 2018, 18, 1936-1942) reported a PDMS microfluidic device comprising an aspiration device to reduce the thickness of double emulsion shells. However, PDMS devices normally rely on delicate control of both flow and wettability, making robust operation difficult. A microfluidic device comprising a glass chip and a supporting holder for supplying fluids into the inlet holes of the chip was reported by Nisisako T. and Torii T. for large-scale production of monomer droplets and polymeric microspheres (Lab Chip. 2008, 8, 287-293). U.S. Pat. No. 9,486,757 B2 proposes the parallel use of microfluidic systems for improvement in control of size and dispersity of emulsions as well as scalability. WO2015/160919 A1 describes a system based on multiple microfluidic channels intersecting at junctions in order to control the dimensions and compositions of the emulsions.
Despite the above mentioned efforts, there is still a need for a microfluidic device that solves the problem of clogging, especially as it relates to bulk production of polymersomes for industrial applications in fields such as oil and gas, energy and environment, cosmetics industry, drug and pharmacological industry applications, large scale manufacture of active polymersomes and related industries.